In Yugoslav tribunal, welling up of conscience

"It is quite amazing [those who confessed] took this step," says Cecile Aptel, a former ICTY official now with the Center for Transitional Justice in Washington. "The accused not only had to come to terms with the crimes individually, but it is also very courageous, since they are themselves part of a criminal enterprise. By apologizing, they are thought of as traitors, and this makes it difficult."

To be sure, ICTY prosecutors can offer a "plea bargain" – though they can't make deals. Under tribunal rules, only judges can sentence. Court staff hardly believe all confessions are a result of soul-searching – the human heart is too complex, and some guilty pleas fall in a very grey area – but many are seen as genuine.

Court officials, who asked for anonymity, say plea bargains are a tool for efficiency, not an escape route for the accused. Their chance to cooperate is voided if they are caught lying or manipulating.

Confessions importantly help "put the puzzle together" in other trials, court spokeswoman Nerma Jelagic points out.

"The people with the most knowledge are the perpetrators," says a senior official in the prosecutor's office. "When you are dealing with organized crime, you need the assistance of the people most involved. You have to penetrate the cabal. But these people understand they are going to prison."

For some accused, the idea of sitting in a Dutch suburb prison eating home-cooked meals appears preferable to going home and facing the neighbors whose sons were shot and daughters raped.

Ms. Aptel plays down plea bargains as a primary motive to admit guilt, and says the hope for lighter sentences doesn't "impact the authenticity of these confessions."

"Those who confess have come to this by many ways, but the intrinsic recognition of the criminal act is central to the truth-telling and healing. I can't say enough about that. It is central to what the court does, but it doesn't get attention."

'I had peaceful relations' until ...

The confessions describe rounding up neighbors, separating families. They admit remorse at the murder of women and children, at watching their honor as soldiers slip away, or for being silent as leaders. Some talk of years of emotional confusion that lifted when they decided to confront themselves and tell the truth.

Some pleas are short. Others go on for pages. Not untypical is Darko Mrda, a member of an "intervention squad" of Bosnian Serb police who escorted a convoy of Bosnian Muslim prisoners on Aug. 21, 1992, in Prijedor. It was an ordinary morning where he "did not think anything particular would happen.... However, that's not how it was." He was asked to separate military-aged men in the convoy. "I participated in separating and killing these innocent people."

Yet he grew up thinking "until the very last moment ... that I would be a member of a generation that would live its life in peace.... I had peaceful relations with my neighbors, Muslims and Croats. We lived together and socialized together, and I even had girlfriends [who] were non-Serbs." But he says an atmosphere created by "radio, television, press, everything was full of threats against Serbs and against Muslims."

A senior prosecutor says, "Most of the people on trial are well educated, with manners and families and who would not do these things in their daily lives."

Karadzic's No. 2 pleaded guilty

Most confessions mention the importance of reconciliation in the Balkans: "If my attempt to face myself contributes to the quicker healing of these wounds, I will have done my duty [as] a soldier, a fighter, a human being, and a father."

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